Family had counted on college financial support for adopted daughter

Sunday

Mar 17, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By Shaun Sutner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Through a layoff and the death of her husband, Colleen E. Briggs still managed to save $40,000 to send her daughter to college.

But soon after Alyssa Dame, whom Ms. Briggs and her late husband adopted when she was 8, enrolled in college last fall, the Webster woman was notified that the state had run out of money to fund full tuition and fees for adoptive children, even though the family had counted on the financial support for years.

According to a Nov. 9, 2012, letter from the state Department of Higher Education, Ms. Briggs, a Wal-Mart retail manager, did not meet new income eligibility requirements for a 2008 law that provides waivers from tuition and fees at state schools to adopted and foster children.

The income rules, which exclude families who can contribute $10,000 or more a year toward their children's higher education, were put in last year because the state has been under-funding the program for several years and said it could not pay full college fees for everyone.

Only the poorest could now expect the state to come through with the full amounts promised by the law , those who could afford less than $10,000. The state said it would still pay for Ms. Dame's tuition at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams.

In Massachusetts, fees, not tuition, make up the bulk of public college and university costs. At Ms. Dame's school, for example, 2012-2013 fees are $7,496, while tuition is $1,030.

To Ms. Briggs and Ms. Dame, the news came as a shock, particularly because the letter from the state came after the school year had already started and they believed, based on a letter from another agency, the Department of Children and Family, that Ms. Dame was eligible.

The family felt betrayed. They and critics of the state's handling of the matter also argue that restricting the waiver program will end up as a disincentive to adoption, which saves taxpayer money by taking children formerly in state custody off the state's books.

“They reneged on the law,” Ms. Briggs said. “What I'm angry about is they didn't honor a promise they made to her.”

State higher education officials say they had no choice this year but to end some fee waivers for families with “Estimated Financial Contribution,” or EFC, levels of $10,000 or more under the federal student aid program.

State lawmakers initially appropriated $2.1 million for the program last year, but that amount was insufficient to cover those, such as Ms. Briggs and her daughter, with EFCs of $10,000 and up, according to Katy Abel, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Higher Education. The Legislature then supplemented the amount with another $1 million — enough to cover tuition and fees for families with EFCs lower than $10,000, but not higher.

Some 592 families received partial fee waivers for the 2010-2011 school year.

“If funds are remaining after all students in this group have been paid, the Department of Higher Education's Office of Student Financial Assistance will use any remaining balance to cover a portion of the 2013 spring fees for students with an Estimated Family Contribution of $10,000 or higher,” Ms. Abel said.

In response to why the department waited until Ms. Dame was already enrolled to notify the family that the full reimbursement would not be forthcoming, Ms. Abel said: “Because the Department of Higher Education does not know the population of adopted and foster students before they arrive at campuses seeking these waivers; it's impossible for DHE to contact families any earlier.

“The Department can only provide information about funding levels once we have the list of students provided by the campuses, and campuses only have the information once a student has self-identified with proof of eligibility from the Department of Children and Families,” she added.

Ms. Abel also noted that the higher education department website notes that tuition and fee waivers are “subject to appropriation.”

As for the DCF, spokeswoman Cayenne Isaksen said agency recently modified its letter to adoptive parents stating they are eligible for the waiver to include a statement that the waiver is subject to appropriation and level of family contribution.

“As additional funding becomes available, it is our hope that all families can receive the full benefit of the program,” Ms. Isaksen said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Briggs had been putting away money over the years with the expectation that Alyssa's education costs would be fully paid, as specified in the law.

The $40,000 — about $10,000 a year — she had saved was for room and board, which adoptive families are expected to cover on their own.

Now, Ms. Briggs has been forced to earmark one year's worth of that room and board savings to tuition and fees. So at the end of this school year, half of Ms. Dame's college money will be gone, and the 18-year-old will still have three years of school left.

Ms. Briggs said at this rate she will only be able to afford two years of college for her daughter.

As her anger about the situation deepened, Ms. Briggs got in touch with her state representative, Ryan C. Fattman, a Sutton Republican.

Mr. Fattman has taken up Ms. Briggs' cause, as well as that of another family in his district that is in a similar predicament but declined to speak about it publicly.

The Blackstone Valley lawmaker said he plans to file a budget amendment next month that would not only restore full funding for the program but also reimburse people such as Ms. Briggs for costs they incurred that should have been borne by the state. Mr. Fattman asserted that other legislators, including Democrats, have constituents with similar problems and will band together to try to restore funding.

While the governor has proposed increasing the tuition and fees waiver program to $3.2 million this year, Mr. Fattman said it isn't enough. For her part, Ms. Briggs noted that the Patrick administration has proposed a dramatic expansion in funding for social services and education this year, yet no similar major boost for the waiver program.

That amount not only could be cut back by the Legislature, but would also be unlikely to cover eligible applicants' 2013-14 education costs and also reimburse families for this year's outlays, he said. Therefore, Mr. Fattman said he would seek to free up extra money by freezing school administrators' salaries.

He said if any cuts had to be made because the state budget was tight, those already granted waivers (such as Ms. Dame, who was informed in 2011 by the Department of Children and Families that she was entitled to full tuition and fees) should have had them guaranteed.

“When you govern a state and make promises to people, you keep your promise. But in this case you've pulled the rug out from underneath all these people who had saved and planned,” Mr. Fattman said. “Any cuts should have been made prospectively, going forward.”

Mr. Fattman, an opponent of granting in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants, also argued that adopted and foster children should be given be given preference for higher education slots over people who came here illegally.

Contact Shaun Sutner at ssutner@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ssutner.